I'm a pop culture geek, married to a non-geek, "normie" guy. I also like cooking and crafts. My own crochet patterns posted here. Please be respectful of my work and keep in mind that most of those crochet patterns have only been made once or twice. If you find a mistake, let me know. If you make something, please send me a link back.
If this blog still isn't enough of me for you, check Geek Crafts for even more of me on Saturdays under AmyLynn98, or find me on Twitter at @JediAmyLynn98.

Saturday, January 10, 2015

I swear, my brain isn't baking in my head from a bronchitis-induced fever. I'm not overly medicated. I chose to do this.

I have temporarily dyed the front part of my hair blue (my bangs and sides). I would have done it purple, but I couldn't find purple dye. I actually decided to do this about two weeks ago, as a part of my bucket list, but really, let's be honest..."Have blue hair" on a bucket list is so dorky and immature for a 40 year old woman so it wasn't ever listed on my list but it was there mentally.

I used Garnier Color Styler in Blue Burst. This is a temporary color and I've decided to do it over a weekend. Amazingly enough, my work place doesn't list unnatural hair colors as not being allowed in the employee handbook, but I'm still hoping this color is gone by Monday morning. That would be a weird conversation on Monday morning if I have to explain that I dyed my hair blue for no reason. :)

I'm not sure where this desire comes from, other than I wanted to do something different and out of character for myself, so I actually went ahead and did it. I figure life can be too short to not have some fun. So, I'm going to get dressed up warm and head out in public like this (my mom would be embarrassed and a little mortified by this, hee hee hee). But in a way, she and a friend of mine are kind of the conduit for my plugging away on my bucket list anyway. I'm smiling as I write this, but I think she would scream at me if I could tell her she inspired me to work on completing that list. Because what's the point of staying home and not showing off this lovely blue glory?

I do need to get some more distilled water for my humidifier, and it does seem to be helping me. Although, I'd like to have a voice again. This being sick shit is getting really old!

Monday, January 5, 2015

Well, I've come back from Luray with bronchitis and off-and-on laryngitis, so that's a lovely little souvenir! I am dragging around like a worn out old woman. But here's some of my photos from the trip. If you feel the need to see any of them larger, give 'em a click.

There are murals all over this little town, on the buildings in downtown. They should really play these up...have a scavenger hunt for them throughout town. If we'd had more time, I would have gone looking for more murals, just themselves.

This is a small town, less than 5,000 people. The town really lives and dies by tourist season, because of the caverns. But there are super nice people working there, and every restaurant we went to had meals that were too large to finish.

This was a smaller zoo than I expected, but all the animals there are rescues.

This is Chewie. When we were leaving, he noticed one of the employees there and Chewie got very excited. We thought it was getting close to feeding time, and maybe that person went into the kitchen to start getting things ready.

Look at that nose and smile!

I wanted to smuggle this little love out of the zoo once he/she jumped through the fence slats at the petting zoo portion, but my husband wouldn't help by creating a distraction for me. :)

It started to lightly sprinkle while we were there. This tiger started to complain about the weather to us, and then he got up and went into his shelter to nap.

Baby toys for the monkeys to play with.

Luray Caverns are the largest caverns in the eastern USA and a National Landmark. Some of the most spectacular creations were formed just one drip at at time, such as Giant's Hall, vast expansive chambers decorated by predominately golden columns, 10-stories tall. The gold colors come from iron and clay soils seeping from the ground along with the calcium carbonate "drips."

There is a spring of water called Dream Lake that has an almost mirror like appearance. Stalactites are reflected in the water making them appear to be stalagmites. This illusion is often so convincing that people are unable to see the real bottom. It looks quite deep, as the stalactites are higher above the water, but at its deepest point the water is only around 20 inches deep. The lake is connected to a spring that continues deeper into the caverns.

Civil War era silk top with a hoop underskirt

Circa 1870 embroidered lace top, the top part of a wedding dress. I can't get over how small the clothes were. It makes me wonder...would humans have evolved into larger people on their own, or has our technologies and lifestyles turned us into tubs of lard.

A spool of thread cabinet by the Brainerd & Armstrong Company. It is still fully stocked with the original spools. Absolutely lovely ad I would LOVE to have something like this in my home today.

At the Luray Valley Museum: "This early 1800'S structure served as a Mennonite and Dunkard meetinghouse at the Mill Creek community in Leaksville, Page County"

Good Geek Quotes To Live By

“Being a geek is all about being honest about what you enjoy and not being afraid to demonstrate that affection. It means never having to play it cool about how much you like something. It’s basically a license to proudly emote on a somewhat childish level rather than behave like a supposed adult. Being a geek is extremely liberating.”

--Simon Pegg

"Being a fangirl or a nerd means that you’re not afraid to love things. That’s what it really gets down to: a conscious decision to not let societal stigma tell you how appropriate your feelings are or are not."--Sara @ Fantastic Fangirls

"Wil Wheaton Says: Don't be a dick"--Wil Wheaton

"All I ask of you is one thing: please don't be cynical. I hate cynicism -- it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen."